Police found evidence. So how did officers forget a child porn case?

The Portland Police Bureau is blaming a since-replaced computer system for officers forgetting to pursue a 2014 child pornography case against a teacher until this summer when the state's licensing agency asked what happened to the case.

Former teacher Philip Taylor Lancaster, who was fired from Portland's Roosevelt High back when his misconduct was discovered, was indicted in October on 13 felony counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree after the bureau assigned a new detective to the four-year old case. The indictment accuses Lancaster of making and attempting to sell eight pornographic videos and five pornographic photos of a child.

The officer who originally had the case, whom the bureau refuses to name on the advice of the city attorney's office, retired in a year the bureau won't specify, according to spokesman Sgt. Chris Burley.

"The Police Bureau has opened an investigation into how this occurred, which includes looking for any possible additional cases," Burley said. He said the case occurred before his agency switched to its current file management system known as RegJIN. "However, in light of this case the Police Bureau is reviewing the current management system to ensure that the current process does not allow for this to happen again," he said.

The lapse carried consequences. Lancaster got on police radar because a Roosevelt student told school officials he believed Lancaster had filmed him in the bathroom. A school resource officer quickly found evidence to back up the teen's claims. But prosecutors now say they cannot charge Lancaster for those actions because the statute of limitations had passed by the time police gave them the case.

And, while Portland Public Schools immediately removed Lancaster from his job and he hasn't taught again, he went on to work at a large Southeast Portland apartment complex where children live, according to renter advocate Margot Black.

Tabby Keefer, a resident of that complex, Wimbledon Square and Gardens, said she is horrified and now uncomfortable in her own home. She has a 6-year-old and said she's now afraid to let her child walk around the complex, which makes her feel guilty as a parent. Keefer said Lancaster continued to work at the property for weeks after the criminal case became public, and management hasn't apologized or addressed her and other residents' fears. The manager at the Wimbledon did not return a call for comment.

"Not only do (Portland police) owe the public answers, but I think they owe the public a policy change because we are too advanced as a society to let people like this slip through the cracks when we could have easily kept a predator off the streets," Keefer said. "At a bare minimum he should have been prevented from taking a job where he would be around children before his case was settled. Clearly they couldn't even do that."

The bureau has not disclosed the precise steps officials are taking to ensure such an egregious error does not occur again or if the findings from their review will be made public. Officials have also not said when or if they will disclose the name of the officer who was originally on the case.

The Multnomah County District Attorney's office has said the charges it filed do not reflect all of the images found during the investigation and that none of the charges relate to Roosevelt students.

In October, after The Oregonian/OregonLive inquired about the case, Assistant Chief of Investigations Jami Resch offered this statement:

"The lack of follow-through is concerning, and I have instructed command of all investigative units to identify methods to ensure a situation such as this does not occur in the future."

— Bethany Barnes, bbarnes@oregonian.com

The Oregonian/OregonLive would like to speak to the teen who reported Lancaster and his family about their thoughts about how this case was handled. Reach out confidentially to Bethany Barnes: bbarnes@oregonian.com